Could serums have made my cystic acne worse?

[Squirrelfruitandnutkin]

I've been using serums for ages. They've all had some amount of hyaluronic acid in them but have varied brand - e.g. Aldi, avene, LRP.

I've had awful cystic acne break outs which had got much worse after I switched serum and moisturiser to LRP.

I got totally fed up of teenage skin in my mid 30s. So I decided to ditch the LRP and on a whim picked up a bottle of olay daily care (the cheap one with spf15).
One week in and the lumpy spots have shrunk the redness is gone and the horrible itch that goes with my cystic acne is much reduced.

Could the serums have been making the cystic acne worse? 😬

Cystic adult acne is often hormone related so it seems unlikely the serum caused it to me (not an expert!). Though you may be sensitive to an ingredient in there. Or perhaps something inrelated to skincare, hormones, stress, diet? Those all impact fpr me as well as products. Personally LRP never did much for my cystic acne and I've found products looking after my skin overall give better results. Glad you've found something that's working for you, stick with it!

I don't think it is completely hormonal. I should be entering an extra crap skin phase, but it's looking much better.

I agree there must be something I'm sensitive to/ in LRP that exacerbates the problem.

No chance of identifying it for certain tho.

I'm in my late 40s and have always had awful problems with skin serums and creams causing acne, spots and horrible red rashes. There are a few I know are 'safe' - until they change the formula and then I have to start again. Generally for me the less 'active ingredient' the better.

I find that the best thing to do with acne is to stop using anything on your skin apart from a simple, trusted wash - give it a few weeks to see what happens and then start adding products back, one at a time. I have had numerous outbreaks and this is the only thing that works for me.

Me too Gold. In my 20s I discovered after a couple of months that I'm sensitive to teatree oil- rather than it helping my skin as had been suggested.